Shattered Clarity
by Philip Ellwell
Summary: It wasn't supposed to happen...but it did. An alternate version of the ROTG story shows Jack Frost leaving a confused, love stricken Pitch behind in the Arctic wastelands. Love can hurt... A complete remake of my older story "Shatter Me".


" No... They'll FEAR both of us... and that's not what I want." Jack's tone was icy; it was obvious his words were meant to have deeper meaning. Pitch's lip curled, as Jack turned away, starting to walk into the Arctic landscape of white snow and ice. Anger radiated in every step he took, ice crackling across the handle of his staff and the neckline of his sweater. A light snow fell around him, responding to his feelings. The sky darkened with his mood, clouds rolling across the sun.

He stopped about five feet away, and looked back over his shoulder at Pitch, his face a mask of hate. " Now..for the last time... Leave me alone," He spat. He turned away, and stalked off into the white snowfall, never once looking back. He faded into the fog.

Pitch simply stood there after this, his dark heart shattering into more pieces than anyone could hope to mend, the brief spark of hope he'd felt before blown out with Jack's icy dismissal. He should be used to being spurned and left behind, but this... this was almost too much for him to bear.

The other Guardians had known nothing of this, nothing of what had really been going on between them. None of them had suspected the affair at all, hadn't seen the obvious signs of it, hadn't noticed the glances during their meetings, hadn't noticed what was going on right under their noses.

He'd never forget when it started: how could he? You never forget when you first fall in love.

They'd still been engaged in the heat of battle during a smaller skirmish a few days before, dodging hits and knocking feet out from under each other. Jack had come across Pitch exiting a child's bedroom on the outskirts of Burgess, and had lept into a fight with no thought. Pitch had taken out Jack's ankle with a sickening crack, knocking him onto his back and straddling his waist, grinning down at him, staff to Dreamscyth. Jack had struggled, and Pitch held him down, the two glaring at each other, murder in their eyes and curses on their lips.

Until, breathing hard, his eyes shining, Jack sat up... and kissed Pitch's dusky lips hard, tilting his head to deepen the kiss before pulling back, eyes wide.

It had surprised them both into silence, staring at each other: one second staring into the face of the person they wanted to kill, the next...icy lips to coal dark ones. Pitch blinked, touching the icy frost on his lips, as Jack had breathed hard, his cheeks red. The skin steamed a little with the heat. Pitch had stared at Jack, confused, frightened...

Pitch dropped his scyth, letting it disolve into Nightmaresand as Jack let his staff clatter to the ground of the clearing, ice coating its tip. They'd been fighting on a rooftop, far out of sight of anyone, not that they could be seen anyway. They were completely alone.

Trembling fingers touched Jack's chest through his sweater, feeling the hard muscle beneath it. Jack sighed, his eyes half lidded. Pitch had pulled the faded fabric up, and touched Jack's belly...

It hadn't meant to go so far: neither of them even knew what they were doing, lost in a haze of emotions they'd never allowed to flurish before. Pitch was lost in it, kissing Jack's belly, stroking his chest. It was like a new breath of life, a second start. They reveled in it, lying together in a tangle of limbs and bare skin, ice to darkness, pale skin to dusky skin. For hours they slowly explored each other, touching or kissing every inch of skin they could reach, kissing the odd wayward freckle, commiting every part to memory.

They lay together, holding onto each other like survivers of a shipwreck, not wanting to let go. Pitch had raised Jack's chin, wanting to see his lovers eyes he kissed him again, feeling frost crackle across his lips. He'd laughed, leaned close to lick it from Jack's lips, leading into another kiss...

Pitch had laid the eternal boy down gently, smiling with honesty for the first time in years, kissing him goodbye. They'd sworn it was a mistake, that this was wrong in every way, as Pitch continued to destroy the other Guardians work, trying to ruin all belief...

Yet they didn't manage to stay apart. When Jack had come to Pitch, searching his lair for the Tooth Fairies, it had ended in Pitch's cavern, sighs and soft moans echoing in the dark.

Pitch had refused to let the Fairies go, and Jack had left, cursing him, swearing this was the end for good. There was no forgiving this.

And now...he was watching Jack walk away from him, his neck still marred with bites from their last meeting, leaving him behind, pretending what they felt wasn't real. It couldn't be true... this couldn't be happening to him..not again.

Pitch's lip curled, and he fist clenched, as he saw Jack, small and frail at this distance, soaring away onto the air, leaving him, not looking back for even a second.

This fight was not over the children's belief as the other Guardians believed it was: by this point, it was a fight to keep Jack's love, even if it was false. The only time he felt human was with Jack. He couldn't let that go.

A flash of emotion broke him, and he fell to the ice in a tangled heap, eyes closed.

" Jack...please.." He whispered, as Jack vanished into the distance.

Words... lost on the Arctic winds. Ignored. Unheard.

Tears ran down his dusky cheeks now, as pitch black as his heart and soul. They burned his skin, leaving pale scars along his cheeks. They'd fade, in time, but for now, they burned, maring him.

He stumbled on the ice, trying to get his footing, and falling again, back against the massive ice formation their tussle had created, knees pulled to his chest as he stared out over the snow. His heart ached. He felt broken.

Behind him, the ice crackled, as darkness swept through it, dimming it to complete blackness.

Lost to the harshness of the winter winds and blowing snow, Jack left him, his own bitter tears freezing on his cheeks.

This wasn't over: Pitch wasn't going to let Jack leave like this. Jack was his world, and he wouldn't accept his world had left him behind.

Only once before had Pitch felt like this, and though not as strong, it had shattered him: Jack leaving broke exactly like hearing her voice from behind the door had, opening it in fear of her being harmed, being engulfed by blackness...

Love can sometimes make a dark heart feel human, but it can also turn it to hate. Pitch snarled, and vanished in a dark swirl. This wasn't over: Jack, and the other Guardians, would all pay.

Revenge would be sweet.


End file.
